BLOG: Don’t forget about staff at the coalface

Paul Fitzpatrick |
April 7, 2011

Key CIO Executive Council Australia advice about the role of the CIO.

Learning the business and understanding the business now and across the next couple of years is vital when sitting down with an executive or a person at the coalface. If they ask you to make a change or develop a new process, whatever it is, you can immediately ask, "This is where we're going as a business, how does your request marry up with that?"

You can workshop it, work through it and come to a mutual agreement and understanding without worrying about staff breaking suit. The main thing is not to forget staff at the end of the day.

They do all the work; we provide services and support for these staff. If we don't get those things right, it will come back and haunt us further down the track.

If you can achieve all those things and have good strong pillars underneath you, you can move into that transformational IT phase. But if you've forgotten the clients along the way, you have got a huge mountain to climb. You just won't get anywhere from a transformational point of view.

Paul Fitzpatrick, is IT Director, with the Australian property valuation firm LandMark White Group.